Tuesday, December 29, 2009

This is a brilliant, albeit extreme example of word of mouth, from David Meerman Scott's New Rules of Viral Marketing:

Cindy Gordon, VP of new media and marketing partnerships at Universal Orlando Resort, wanted to publicise the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction, in 2007.

"Gordon and her counterpart at Warner Bros. chose to launch The Wizarding World ofHarry Potter by first telling the exciting news to a very small group of rabid fans. Sevenpeople at the top Harry Potter fan sites, such as Mugglenet , were hand-selected by Gordon’steam, with Warner Bros. and Rowling herself providing input about the choices. Theseseven (affectionately referred to by Gordon’s team as “the AP of the HP world”) were invitedto participate in a top-secret Webcast held at midnight on May 31, 2007.

The Webcast was hosted by Scott Trowbridge, vice president of Universal Creative, andfeatured Stuart Craig, the academy award-winning production designer for all the Harry Potterfilms. In the Webcast, live from the “Dumbledore’s Office” set at Leavesden Studios, Craig discussed how his team of twenty designers is bringing together The Wizarding World ofHarry Potter theme park.

“If we hadn’t gone to fans first, there could have been a backlash,” Gordon says. She imaginedthe disappointment dedicated Harry Potter fans might feel if they learned about UniversalOrlando’s plans in, say, The New York Times rather than an insider fan site.

Soon after the Webcast, the team sent an e-announcement to their in-house, opt-in emaillist of park guests so they could hear the news directly too. Team members also sent thee-announcement to friends and family. During the secret Webcast, a Web micro-site wentlive to provide a place for bloggers and the media to link to for information on the themepark, which is slated to open in late 2009 or early 2010.

Visitors to the site learned that thepark will feature immersive rides and interactive attractions, as well as experiential shopsand restaurants that will enable guests to sample fare from the wizarding world’s bestknown establishments.Because Gordon’s team launched The Wizarding World of Harry Potter through socialmedia—putting fans first—they were able to run the entire promotion in-house, with a verysmall marketing budget (covering the Webcast infrastructure and the micro-site production)and a tiny development team. They did not hire an agency, and they did no widespread outbound media relations, no marketing stunts, no CEO conference call, and no expensiveadvertising.

Of course, not all companies have Harry Potter on their team. But Gordon still accomplisheda remarkable feat with an approach that most large organizations would not have taken. Shetold just seven people, and the power of word-of-mouse led to 350 million people hearing the news."

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Brightkite is a mobile service that lets you keeps in touch with friends and colleagues - almost like a geo-location twitter, with pictures. I have to declare a slight interest because I used to work with two of the founders, Rob Lawson and Jonathan Linner, and I'm very proud of their work.

Their latest feature is to offer Augmented Reality advertising on their iPhone and Android apps, using the Layar browser.

"Now, not only can you see posts and photos that you and your friends have left, we’ve added local businesses with special offers for you.

Our first partner has been one of the US’s biggest electronics retailers, who have been piloting the service throughout December – you can see their nearest store and click through to see what local offers they have in-store. We will add merchants slowly and increase the targeting criteria, to make sure that they are relevant and in the right balance to the content left by your friends."

The picture shows how it appears on the screen, with an ad for BestBuy on the bottom.

Good work! As one of my colleagues has pointed out, now you can buy oudoor advertising like posters, but in real time, through mobile.

Friday, December 18, 2009

"Fuller's "If I Can Dream," which is being billed as the first of "a new generation of post-reality entertainment," will document the story of five young people who dream of success in Hollywood. The show will allow viewers to interact with the individuals and narrative in real time, and will be seen live 24 hours a day, seven days a week at www.ificandream.com.

The series is scheduled to launch multiple platforms including online, radio, TV and mobile handsets early next year."

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Starting tomorrow, Coldplay are auctioning off lots of their guitars, keyboards, amps and other paraphernalia from the last ten years, in aid of the charity KidsCompany.

The auction is broken down into 4 different auctions:

Friday 18 December - All items related to Parachutes eraSaturday 19 December - All items related to A Rush Of Blood To The Head eraSunday 20 December - All items related to X&Y eraMonday 21 December - All items related to Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends era

All auctions will last for 10 days, with the final auction ending on 31 December 2009.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Mia Rose is a surprising YouTube phenomenon. A singer songwriter, she has been active on YouTube since 2006, and her latest song, uploaded 2 weeks ago, has had 1,100,000 views to date, with 7,000 ratings and 5,500 comments.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

This is a piece of work that's currently happening in Spain, produced for adidas by Netthink, part of Aegis, the company that I work for.

Under the banner The Power of Red, adidas has placed a huge blank Spanish football shirt on the wall of Plaza de Felipe II in Madrid. The Red Cross are also in the square, collecting blood from sports stars, actors, celebrities, and fans,

The more blood that's given, the more the shirt gets painted red. How better to show your passion and commitment than giving blood for your team?

Busy Google has just launched this new project fromtheir labs, called Living Stories. A collaboration with the Washington Post and the New York Times (neither owned by News International), the page gives you developing stories in one place.

At present it seems very US-centric (let's see what it looks like when there's a major international story breaking), and it also looks very much designed for mobile devices.

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

First, Google Goggles will identify local businesses from your mobile, so that you can see reviews and ratings easily.

Second, Postabon, currently just in New York, shows you location-specific special offers, and ties in with other services like Foursquare.

I believe that one of the drivers for web adoption was that people realised that they could buy things more cheaply online, and I think the same will happen for the mobile web. I recently had a meeting with Forrester in which they forecast the level of mobile web adoption in Western Europe at around 40% by the year 2014 (it's currenly in the early 20%s), but I think that this forecast is *very* conservative.

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

With the whole world (seemingly) going bonkers every day about new developments in social media, mobile apps and all things new, it's easy to forget how powerful some traditional channels are, such as shopping channels, especially in the US.

Exhibit 1 - Puff Daddy on Home Shopping Network

Check out this officially uploaded video of the artist formerly known as Puff Daddy on HSN, selling his Sean John Unforgivable Woman Gift Set. & don't forget to watch the counter on the bottom right hand side - in ten minutes they sell over 2,000 at $55 - $60 a go. That's over $120,000 in revenue in 10 minutes.

Exhibit 2 - Susan Boyle's album launch on QVC

Watch this unofficially uploaded clip from the launch of the album on QVC. Susan Boyle's not on personally, but the presenters do a very good job of selling pre-release albums, nearly a month before it went on sale officially. Again, keep an eye on the sales figures, this time in the bar along the bottom of the screen. Nearly 3,000 sold in six minutes at $20 a go - for an album that wouldn't be available for several weeks.

Great targeting, and great selling.

(Simon Cowell has to be the marketer of the year. While everyone else was fretting over piracy and illegal downloads he discovered and marketed an artist aimed squarely at people who don't download.)

Monday, December 07, 2009

Aimed solidly at the working men of Britain (with ads on TalkSport radio, for example), the campaign is looking for people to say what they do for a living, and how they've earned their 'Bowtime'. They give you music to download, but after that they rely on the users to do the editing etc.